Maserati plays with mud in the Kubang

Italian Super GT brand Maserati is following the footsteps of Porsche and is coming up with a Sports Utility Vehicle to call its own and uniquely Malaysian buyers are squarely in their crosshair.

Called Kubang or mudhole in Malay, Maserati is really keen to impress to Malaysians that their SUV is at home in the mud.

Ok, actually I do not know why they care calling it the Kubang as none of the reports or Media Releases coming out of the Frankfurt Motor Show explains it.

This is the second incarnation of the Kubang, which first appeared as a concept SUV at the Detroit Motor Show earlier this year. This second iteration indicates the trajectory that Maserati is on for the production version.

In Detroit it was said that the Kubang has benefitted from the marriage between parents Fiat and Chrysler. Chrysler is of course the parent of Jeep.

While there are no indication which bits of the car will be from Jeep or Chrysler and which bobs will come from the Fiat parts bin, expect them to be unseen components.

All body panels and interior items will be pure Maserati, the days of parts bin collage is over.

Maserati has indicated that they will probably get chief powertrain engineer, Paolo Martinelli to design their own engine for the Kubang.

However the engine will be built at Maranello's engine plant.